This invention relates to articulated crane-type machines, such as hydraulic excavator machines. The invention also relates to sideboom-type cranes and side-lifting machines including the type of crane in which a side boom is mounted on the tractor of the machine.
The invention is more particularly directed to a crane-type machine in which a front attachment has a main boom that is combined with a sideboom attachment, this combination serving as a side-lifting machine.
Many sideboom cranes and side-lifting devices have been proposed in the prior art, for example, to be employed as pipe-laying cranes, etc. Typical of these cranes are those discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,132,317; 3,265,218; 3,236,391; 2,712,873; and 2,003,599. It has also been previously proposed to attach a side boom to a tractor, and typical arrangements are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,329,283 and 2,991,890.
However, no one has previously employed an articulated hydraulic excavator machine as a sideboom-type, side-lifting device, nor has anyone previously proposed a detachable sideboom structure which can be combined with the main attachment boom of the excavator to adapt the excavator for such a purpose.